Madison County commissioners are asking themselves that question. And they want the county board of elections to study potentially reducing the 12 polling places to a smaller number. How many would be appropriate: six, eight, 10? That’s what the board wants to determine.

Commissioners brought up the matter during their day-long budget work session June 21, which opened with board of elections chairman Tracy Dean presenting her department’s budget request for 2020. She noted that 2020 will be a busy election year. Election office budgets vary drastically from year to year based on what is scheduled. The 2019 election budget was $166,861. And the requested 2020 budget is $329,014.

County commissioners voiced a desire during their budget meeting to reduce election costs but not to create hardships for voters.

Dean said the board of elections discussed consolidating voting districts but decided not to address the matter for the 2020 elections, since the county will be implementing new voting machines during a busy election year.

“We don’t want to take any chances with next year’s elections,” she said.

Commission chairman John Scarborough said there’s never going to be a good time to consolidate and that failing to address the issue now could mean buying more election machines than needed. The board allocated $70,000 in next year’s budget for the purchase of new election machines, which will include a paper trail. Georgia counties are still waiting on guidance from the state on what machines they will need to purchase.

The chairman said 12 precincts may or may not be the right answer for Madison County, but he said consolidation warrants examination, adding that he doesn’t favor doing things simply because they’ve always been done that way. He said the county could have 50 precincts and there would still be complaints. He said the commissioners have to look at cutting down the expense of machines and poll workers as expenses soar.

“We’re looking at this because of the increasing costs to the county,” he said.

Commissioner Derek Doster asked Dean if there is a legal definition for a “disenfranchised voter,” such as a citizen living outside of a certain distance from a polling precinct. He said he wants to find the right balance between cost efficiency and accessibility. Dean said she didn’t know of a definition for disenfranchised voter. She said the state just advises counties to be careful in reducing precincts.

Dean and the commissioners agreed that giving voters an opportunity to offer input on consolidation would be a good move. They discussed creating an online survey asking voters if they favored reducing the number of precincts to reduce county costs. That survey had not been posted as of press time.

While reducing costs through consolidation was one point of discussion, the group also talked about the need for election security. The board is planning to have one armed officer at each polling precinct during elections in 2020, at an estimated cost of $21,000. Dean said the current climate warrants such security.